Gift
by Belmione
Summary: "Lin was the best gift Toph could've hoped for; better than all the sights in the world."A bunch of disjointed one-shots I've written about Toph and st chapters are stand-alones although some will be able to be put together with some bined under one story for organization's sake.If you're looking for a bunch of Bei Fong one-shots in one place, look no further!
1. Chapter 1

_**Hi all! This is the first chapter in a story that is really just a bunch of disjointed one-shots I've written about Toph and Lin. All chapters are pretty much stand-alones. Many will contradict other chapters' canon although some will be able to be put together with some continuity. I've just had them lying about on my laptop for so long and figured I might as well post them. I'm combining them under one story to save my sanity and keep everything organized, haha. So if you're looking for a bunch of Bei Fong one-shots in one place, look no further. Hope you all enjoy them!**_

_**Disclaimer: I own nothing.  
**_

Huojin is an older man, in his fifties. A grizzled man, with a square jaw like rock and black hair streaked with some gray here and there. Huojin has seen and done a lot of things in his lifetime already, not that he has any intention of leaving this life any time soon either. But he's got some experience under his belt. He worked in the shipping business in a small place near Omashu for a while. Then he up and entered the small police force there, and then eventually entered the one in Omashu and was the chief there for a long time. Until he was recruited to Republic City. At forty, he had felt as if he was eighteen he was so excited when he was told he'd be learning to metalbend and that he'd be on the force in Republic City. He remembers hearing rumors back when he was a younger man

that there were earthbenders who had learned to bend metal, that the Avatar's earthbending teacher had invented it. He had seen her once when she was younger. She hadn't been what he'd expected. He expected to see a husky boy in his twenties. Instead, he found an exceedingly short, stocky girl of eleven or twelve, leaning against the Avatar's bison with her hands on her hips. He remembers thinking she was a cocky thing. And he remembers chuckling in disbelief as she turned her head and he saw that her eyes were sightless and milky. She was an unusual, funny little thing. Huojin also remembers clearly thinking she wasn't so funny anymore when he watched her play with a metal bracelet of hers, bending it as if it were tin foil.

The only other thing Huojin thinks about her, then and now, is that she is so much younger than he. Not that that means he's not just as terrified of her as the rest of the officers around here. He knows that Chief Bei Fong could kill him in the blink of an eye. He's been on the wrong side of her wrath before and has left her office shaking more than once. As her second-in command he knows better than almost anyone else what Chief Bei Fong is capable of. But he supposes it is a symptom of being about twenty years older than her that, even as terrified as he is of her and even though she's the person he respects the most out of anyone he's ever met, he can't help but worry about her. She is just very young. And he knows it can't be easy, being the Chief. He's been there. Omashu is a very large city and Huojin spent many nights working into early morning hours. And Republic City is unequivocally more of a handful. It would be a full-time grueling job on its own. So Huojin worries about the Chief, especially when he sees her this morning. She's naturally pale, but she is deathly pale this morning. Wan-faced, with purple, bruised bags under her sightless eyes, with a sickly green cast to her skin. She looks awful.

"Chief? Is there anything else you need?" Huojin asks the Chief gruffly.

"What? No, of course not, I've already given you the morning briefing. What else do you want?" Chief Bei Fong narrows her sightless eyes suspiciously.

Huojin knows it's time to backpedal and fast. The Chief does not take kindly to people coddling her. Even asking her if she's alright is hazardous. Any indication that she is anything but eminently capable is an insult to her. So Huojin nods once, gives her a short "Nothing, Chief," and leaves her to it. Huojin knows he cannot explicitly tell her that he doesn't think she looks well. Chief hates coddling and Huojin hates doing it. Huojin doesn't do that soft stuff; her friends can do that for her, even though he knows they'll likely be rebuffed too. But he does wonder if there is a way he can help. He does care, more than he or any of the other officers want to admit, about what happens to Chief Bei Fong. Huojin supposes he's not very good at affection, but he's good at protecting. It's what he has always done. For whatever city he's lived in, for his wife, for his children, for the small infant grandson he has now. The Chief doesn't need much protecting from the outside world. Just maybe a little bit from herself. So Huojin resolves that day to try and do a little of that; just under the radar so the Chief doesn't catch on.

So Huojin keeps a steady, brusque eye on the Chief. He notices that she looks green like that for a week before he decides to take action. He sees her drag her hand across her chin which means she's thrown up again. He knows how to fix it. He's watched his wife treat their children enough to know that a little ginger can clear it right up. Huojin goes home that night and asks Meili to make some of those ginger cookies and tells her why. Meili has scarcely heard that a young woman who is just barely thirty has been nauseous for a week before she's chopping ginger furiously, to the point that Huojin is concerned for her fingers for a moment.

Huojin does not tell the Chief the truth about why the cookies are in the break room. They rarely have any sort of sweets or anything extra in there. He knows better than to tip her off. When she asks, clearly trying to mask her interest, Huojin shrugs.

"Someone's wife sent 'em in I think."

The Chief nods, shrugs, and takes the entire plate off to her office.

"Hope no one else wanted 'em because I'm taking them now," she cackles, stuffing two of them in her mouth. Huojin shakes his head. She's a bit much sometimes. But he notes that she looks considerably better a few hours later. The cookies appear in the break room every day for the rest of the week and the Chief, with absolute disregard for everyone else, takes the cookies that were meant for her anyway every day.

After a while, the Chief perks up without the cookies. They disappear from the break room when Huojin can tell they're not necessary anymore. But he keeps his eye on the Chief closer now. No one but her second command would probably notice at this point. But Huojin has noticed now that the Chief's belt seems to be fitting tighter and that the armor at her abdomen is just a bit less flat than it was two months ago. He notices that sometimes the Chief looks so very drained, that sometimes she's sweating when it's perfectly temperate, if not a bit cold, in the room. He notices that her feet seem a little flatter, that her face seems a little swollen, lips puffy under her bangs. He knows what it all means. He has four children and a grandson. He can spot a pregnant woman a mile away. Huojin says nothing when he realizes. He just raises his eyebrows a little, nods once, and files the information away for later. And so Huojin keeps a stony eye on her from afar.

The first thing he does is see to it that the Chief's office is kept colder than it used to be. Hormones, a weighty baby, and armor in a stuffy room would be enough to make anyone sweat. They have a maintenance man for the building who, among other things, supervises the team of waterbenders who are paid to keep ice in grates all over the building to cool it. He pays him off not to say anything. The man is a blabber mouth, but fifty yuans shut him up quick. Huojin nods, gratified, when he sees the next day that the beads of sweat don't appear on the Chief's tired face.

Eventually, the force does find out. There is a day that Huojin, and everyone else apparently, notices that the bulge in the Chief's armor is just too round now to mistake for anything else. They don't dare talk about it while the Chief is anywhere close to within earshot. But talk they do when she's far enough away.

"How's she gonna deal with this and stay Chief?"

"She's not. She'll crack."

"I'm just wondering what the hell she's going to do in general. Chief's not the mothering type. How's that going to work?"

"Who the hell is the father?"

Huojin feels his face heat up hearing it. He walks silently into the break room and clears his throat.

"I suggest we stop insulting our Chief of Police and a young woman who can do whatever she pleases. Chief Bei Fong does not have to tell you all anything about the situation at hand and does not need your approval to be a parent. Unless you want to tell her all of this to her face?"

The officers all looked to the floor.

"No sir."

"Of course not sir."

"I'm sorry sir."

"Good. Now you're all doing ten laps upstairs around the track. Go quickly before I get really mad. I don't take kindly to men who harass women and try to claim they know what's right for them and what they're capable of," Huojin growls menacingly. He just thinks about how he would feel if someone were saying it about his daughter and he knows the resulting look on his face is what makes the men all but run out of the room. They say nothing about her from there on out. Huojin, and the Chief's own presence, make sure of it.

Huojin can't help but chuckle a little to himself the day he watches the Chief leave her office three times in an hour and come back carting food. He remembers Meili doing the same things, and his daughter with his grandson. Today is a hollow day for the Chief. Nothing she eats seems to be enough. Her desk is littered with takeout boxes. He hears her muttering darkly about lychee nuts and how the vendors outside don't have them. Huojin returns from his lunch break and innocently asks her if she wants the leftover lychee nuts from his lunch.

"Yes I do! Thanks, Captain," she nods once, a sideways grin quirking up on her face. The Chief never politely declines things first. If she wants something, she'll un-ironically say so, whether asked first if she wants it or not. Huojin conveniently produces the foods Chief mutters about every other day from then on. It is a daunting task. The Chief is a formidable eater normally, but pregnant, she eats like an ostrich-horse. Keeping up with her is difficult. That and Huojin has to be careful about how he presents all of this. She'll catch on if he is the one who shows up with food every day. So some days he brings it. Others, he conveniently tips her off on what vendors and restaurants sell whatever bizarre item she's after that day. Some days he sends others out to get it. Some days it appears in the break room like the cookies. It can be a challenge; some of the Chief's cravings are very strange. But then Huojin wasn't ever under any sort of impression that the Chief was going to make it easy for him. That isn't her style. Chief Bei Fong makes it clear that she is what she is and that she isn't budging for a soul.

Huojin isn't exactly sure why he looks after her so closely. It doesn't make much sense to him and he's the one doing it. It's very odd to him because the Chief is such a capable person. More than capable. More so than any of them. So why does he feel like she needs someone looking out for her? He supposes it's how alone she is. Alone to a fault. He knows part of it is her decision. The Chief likes to do things by herself. But Huojin's mother used to tell him all the time that it was alright to accept help from others; that everyone needs some help and someone to look after them sometimes. The Chief looks after everyone else, but there are very few looking out for her. She is young and largely alone in what Huojin knows is a difficult journey. He can see the weight on her shoulders sometimes. She squares them as best she can and does well, but it's hard and he knows it is. He knows it's not hormones like another officer might say when he catches an accidental glimpse of her with her head in her hands, slumped over her desk, shoulders shaking and tears running down her face. He isn't sure what particular event today triggered the small breakdown, but he knows the root of it is that she is only thirty two and has no one besides her friends and knows that she can't burden them because they have their own children and their own lives. She knows that they would try to help her and would never let on that she was an inconvenience but that, at the bottom of it, she would be. She is like Huojin himself that way. She will bear it alone rather than burden anyone else. And Huojin can't help but feel a little tug seeing her trembling shoulders and clenched fists. She is only four years older than his daughter. He wouldn't let her sit there and sob alone if it were his own daughter. And as much as Huojin knows he'll be chastised for it, at least at first, he's not going to leave her either.

"Chief-"

Her head snaps up, looking at him a little off center as always.

"What?!" she snaps viciously. Huojin puts his hands up, palms exposed, trying to indicate that he means no harm.

"I believe my door was shut, Captain. Care to explain why you've decided it's appropriate to intrude?" she lays into him, as terrifying as usual even sobbing the way she is. Maybe more so.

"Forgive my insolence, Chief. But-"

Huojin takes a few steps towards her desk. She tenses wildly, but otherwise lets him in. Huojin wordlessly sets a clean handkerchief and a steaming cup of jasmine tea in front of her. He watches her calm almost immediately when she smells it and there seems to be some sort of soothing memory behind the smell.

"I just thought that a bit of calming tea would be in order. It helps me when I cry. It'll clear your mind," Huojin assures her before he claps his platypus-bear sized hand on her armored shoulder. She sighs when he does so, furrowed eyebrows troubled.

"You cry?" she snorts at him thickly through her tears, still able to poke a bit of fun at him and laugh in the state she's in.

"Everyone cries, Chief. Even you."

Chief Bei Fong scowls, clearly miffed at being reminded that she is not immune to tears and sadness and stress.

"It'll be alright, Chief," he tells her. "If anyone can handle it, you can."

She nods an iron nod, eyebrows furrowing further as if reminded of who she is.

"Of course it is," she assures him, some of her usual bravado sinking back in as she takes a slow sip of the tea. Huojin resolves to remind her how capable she really is whenever she needs it. Whenever the Chief looks upset in the coming months, Huojin brings her tea. And she balks at first, but something happens when she smells that tea and it's as if she's reminded both that she's the most capable person any of them know and that, even so, it's alright for her to accept help. Not that she needs much of it. Just an assurance from time to time that all is well.

Huojin is there for all of these sad times, just like he is for his daughters. And he's around for the happy ones too. He's walking along with her the day she stops dead in the middle of a hallway in headquarters, milky eyes wide and eyebrows raised. And then she barks a disbelieving cackle.

"Chief?" Huojin questions, alarmed.

"It's a heartbeat. Can you hear it?"

"Uh...no. I don't think most people can hear it, even if they're the ones pregnant. I think that's just you, Chief."

"Oh. Right. Well it's there. She has a heartbeat. Or at least it's loud enough now that I can hear it."

"You so sure it's a girl?" Huojin huffs.

"Positive. I can see her."

"You can see her?!"

"Yup. With my bending. She looks kinda funny right now but she's getting cuter. And of course she'll be extremely attractive by the time she's born because she's mine, so-"

Huojin stares, stunned for a moment before he chuckles with her.

"You're something, Chief."

"I know."

Huojin is there to watch how funny it is when the Chief gets so very round and a little slow. He tips off the rest of the officers not to walk any faster than she because he knows she'll be incensed if she's reminded that she's getting a bit clumsy. But it is ever so funny to watch her get so big. The Chief is a small woman, so she's all baby now. You can even see the bulge from behind. She looks like some of the fat beetles found in the earth kingdom, round and shiny with her armor bended around her. Huojin raises his eyebrow at a very new recruit, officer Chei, who starts walking a few steps too much in front of the Chief and he watches her eyebrows start to turn downwards. Chei is an imbecile, though, and Huojin has to jerk him to the side and mutter,

"Stay. Behind. Her. Or. Beside. Her. Don't remind her that she's slow now, are you insane?"

Chei gives Huojin a loud, "Ohhhh, I get it." Huojin claps a hand to his forehead.

Huojin is also there the day that her friends worm their way into headquarters into Bei Fong's office while the Chief is out to give some sort of shower for her. Huojin knows it's all the water tribe woman's doing. She told him about it a few weeks ago. He knows her vaguely. She is the Avatar's wife and the best waterbending master in the world, after all. The Avatar seems complicit in it, eagerly setting things up with his wife. The water tribe man, the woman's brother, seems uneasy. And Huojin is too. They both know the Chief well enough to know she's not going to like getting ambushed with something like this at _work_ of all places. Especially now. The Chief is so big now she waddles like a turtle duck and she does not like it one iota. She wants that baby out of her as soon as possible. She's not going to react well to some frilly party.

And she doesn't. Huojin cringes when he hears the Chief shout, "Katara, what the hell is this?!"

"Oh hush, it's a baby shower."

"You threw me a baby shower?! At headquarters?!"

"I told you this was a bad idea. I'm the idea guy, I should know."

"Her idea," the Avatar relinquishes all culpability and points at his wife. Not that she cares. Katara is one of the few people in the world who isn't afraid of Toph Bei Fong.

"What good is a baby shower to me?!"

"It's just a small party, Toph, and people bring you presents for the baby."

"I know what it _is_, sweetness, I'm just trying to figure out why you thought it was a good idea."

"Come on, don't tell me you don't think this is cute-" Katara holds up some sort of frilly baby dress that makes Huojin want to puke.

"Well it sounds like fabric, but I suppose you're referring-" The Chief doesn't bother to finish her sentence before waving her hand in front of her blind eyes.

"Well, the only thing I _was_ in charge of was the food. Just eat the stress away. That's what I do," the watertribe man shrugs, talking through a mouthful of some meaty concoction. The chief stomps over and, with her hand, grabs a messy chunk out of the cake that sits on a table to the side and plops it on a plate. She lays into it with gusto, still scowling. A gaggle of young officers titter outside of the office, watching through the open door until the Chief punts them up to the ceiling and back with a few well-timed earthen columns.

"_Twenty laps before you all are rubble!" _she bellows at them. Katara huffs a little but doesn't seem surprised. Huojin slinks away when Sokka drags out a package none of them recognize and tears it open. The Chief will have nothing to do with any of it.

"Don't know where this one came from, but this one's not bad, Toph," he holds up a little onesie.

"What in Spirits name does it look like?" the Chief pinches the bridge of her nose.

"It's just a green baby suit thing."

"Oh Sokka, it's called a onesie."

"Whatever. Green. Baby suit. No frills," he tells her, tossing it to her. It lands on her lap.

"Sounds good. She can wear it until she's twenty."

Katara gives a long-suffering sigh and the Avatar chuckles nervously.

Huojin wonders when the Chief will go on leave a few weeks later. He knows she's due any day, but of course she keeps reporting to headquarters. It makes them all immensely nervous. No one wants the Chief going into labor within a five mile radius of them. Huojin watches the Chief like a messenger-hawk. And he's glad he does because he walks in one morning and the Chief seems just fine, as fierce and brash as normal. Until a minute or two later her eyes screw shut and the muscles in her jaw clench, her hand curls vice-like along the stone edge of her desk and she leaves an imprint the shape of her fingers in it. And it passes and she sighs.

"Sorry. What were you saying?"

"Chief?"

"It's been happening since this morning, don't worry," she assures him but her voice is strained and she's sweating.

"Chief, that means you're in labor."

"Oh I know that. But it's not that bad yet." Huojin eyes her skeptically but doesn't press it. Five minutes later she stops short as another one hits and she curses under her breath.

"Chief Bei Fong, with all due respect I've had four children and one grandchild and those are not very far apart at all. You need to get out of here before things get worse. Unless you want to have that baby in this office. Because you're not going to be able to walk very far in an hour or so."

"I doubt that I won't be able to walk," she shakes her head. Yet another five minutes later another one comes and he can tell it's worse because her knees buckle a little and she has to catch herself on her desk.

"You were saying?"

"...Okay, okay, I'm going."

"And I'm going with you. You're going to the waterbender's place, right?"

"Yes. And I don't need your help."

Huojin follows her anyway and has to catch her four more minutes later in the middle of the hallway. She curses again, clearly embarrassed.

"Chief, you're the toughest person I know. But, excuse my language, labor's a bitch. So don't get upset that it's already rough. You'll still handle it better than anyone else."

"That _is_ true," she concedes and allows him to support her on the short walk to Katara's front door. Huojin thanks the Spirits he knows how to negotiate with Chief Bei Fong. It's a lot of ego-stroking, but if it means he gets her out of headquarters before things get intense, he'll do it. Katara looks ever so exasperated when she sees the Chief turn up, in the absolute middle of a contraction that is clearly exceedingly painful, too painful for early labor.

"She was trying to work while she was in labor," Huojin explains.

"Thank you for bringing her over here, Captain-" Katara gathers Toph in her own arms and turns to go inside. "Thank you again!" she tells him cheerily. He hears her continue when she shuts the door.

"Toph we talked about this!"

"Calm down, sugar queen, I'm oka-" the Chief swears sharply, cut off. Huojin shakes his head, as exasperated as the waterbending master. But he also feels accomplished. He feels as if he's gotten her through. And he'll continue to help whenever she needs it.

Huojin takes over for her while she's gone. He is three weeks into her six-week leave (that he knows she's trying to shorten) when he learns that his mother has died and Huojin has to leave things to his Lieutenant for a week. It hits Huojin very hard. Huojin was raised by his mother; never knew his father. She meant everything to him. He has to go halfway to Omashu for the funeral, in the small village he was raised in. It is a small gathering. His mother was very old and lived a full life and many of her own friends are already gone. A small number of those who knew her in the village are there, and Huojin, his wife, and his family. He barely makes it through the funeral, but he holds it together. After, he cracks. His wife goes to attend to the family, and kisses him sadly before she goes. She lets him have his time alone. He does not realize that he's not alone anymore until a strong hand claps him, a touch too hard, on the back. The next thing he knows there's a cup of tea under his nose and a handkerchief that isn't his. It's more expensive than his, with a gold and green boar embroidered on it.

"I just thought that a bit of calming tea would be in order. It helps me when I cry. It'll clear your mind."

He already knows who it is and tries to dry his tears quickly. But the Chief shakes her head.

"Everybody cries, Captain. Even you."

Huojin finally looks fully at her. She looks very different out of her armor. She's dressed in more practical, comfortable earth kingdom green. But the strong shoulders, set jaw, and unyielding milky eyes are the same. It takes him a moment to notice the green bundle that blends into her clothes at first. Until it moves and he sees downy black hair peeking out of the green wrap she wears.

"Oh, yeah, sorry. This is Lin."

The baby looks towards him with clumsy light-green eyes and promptly scowls in his direction. She's the Chief's alright. Huojin chuckles before wiping more tears away.

"Thank you, Chief."

She shrugs.

"I've got your back, Captain. Don't forget it. There's more tea in the shop down there if you want it. I'll be there."

She saunters away. Huojin has never been so glad to see the Chief. There's nothing like having someone like her at your back and it is an immense comfort to Huojin now. And, although she didn't say it outright, Huojin knows that in her way she's telling him that she knows he's got hers.

_**Hope you all enjoyed! I should be putting up another one in a week or so since they're all already written. I'd love it if you all would pop by and tell me what you thought of this chapter! Thanks for reading! Until next time!**_

_**~Belmione**_


	2. Chapter 2

_**HI all! Here's chapter two! This one is a little bit shorter and can possibly go together with the last chapter. The next chapters after this will probably be stand-alones. Hope you all enjoy!**_

_**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**_

Officer Hino yawned widely, trying to cover it with his hand lest the Chief feel that he was anything but bright-eyed, sharp-minded, and bushy-tailed this morning. Things were rarely lost on her and there'd be hell to pay if she figured out that he'd been so irresponsible last night as to go to bed two hours before he was supposed to report. He knew that the Chief herself used to do the same. Not that it mattered. She was the chief, she could do whatever she wanted, she'd assert. When he was the Chief of Police and the inventor of metalbending he, too, could go drinking all night and turn around to report to work. Until then, he'd better straighten up before he got in real trouble. Hino blinked rapidly, trying to clear his head. They were in the midst of their morning briefing and it would not do to miss anything that the Chief was telling them. She'd know. Sometimes she all but tested them on it. He had to stay vigilant.

He knew he had missed something already as the officers around him started and looked below their chairs. She had told them to retrieve something. She'd notice his delayed reaction. He heard a little squeak. It sounded alive. A rat problem? Was she telling them to take care of it? Officer Hino was searching for rats when he finally saw the source of the commotion. It wasn't an animal, although it was very small and a little wriggly. It was a small child, head fuzzy with soft, downy black hair like duckling feathers. The child had one white tooth sticking out of its lower gum, drool all down its chin, smiling widely. It wore dark green. Earth kingdom colors, of course. And there were pale, bright green eyes twinkling above chubby cheeks. Hino smiled. He had never seen her before, but he knew this must be Chief Bei Fong's daughter, Lin. He wondered what she was doing clambering around under the officers' chairs. She crawled, wriggling and scooting, over to his foot, resting a tiny, pudgy hand on his shoe. As if she had read his mind the Chief smirked and said, "If anyone hasn't noticed, we have a new officer in our ranks today. Officer Hino, if you could stand up with Officer Bei Fong, please."

"What?"

"Yeah, just pick her up. Quit dawdling."

Officer Hino panicked as he hooked his hands under the baby's arms. If he harmed so much of a hair on her head, he was dead. What if he dropped her? What if he upset her and she started crying? He nervously picked her up, gingerly resting her on the side of his hip. Lin seemed unperturbed and merely gurgled and drooled a little more.

"This is Lin, your future chief of police. She's a little sick, so she's joining the ranks for the day. She'll be with me mostly, but keep an eye out for her, don't step on her, and if she earthbends at you, bend back a little, but not too hard. Thank you, officer Hino, you can put her back down."

"She can earthbend already?" the officer beside him whispered to his friend. As if to prove it, little Lin, as soon as she was back on all fours, smacked her pudgy, tiny hand flat against the ground and a not-so-tiny tremor vibrated under everyone's feet.

"Of course she can, she's the Chief's kid," the friend muttered back, eyeing his fellow officer as if he were clearly mentally deficient. Everyone in the vicinity looked at Lin with a mixture of shock, fear, and admiration. Only Chief Bei Fong's kid would be able to bend before she could walk. Officer Hino, per the Chief's orders, sent a little tremor back. Lin squealed, giggling and the Chief quirked a rare smile from the front of the room. Lin continued her journey under the seats of the officers in the room. Officer Hino smiled watching her crawl around in the wriggly, jerky movements that all babies make. She tried a few times to scoot over the threshold, but the Chief would invariably spin her around, creating an earthen disc in the floor right under the child, redirecting her wordlessly as she briefed her officers, as if nothing had happened. She really was "watching" her all the time.

It wasn't long before the baby had had enough of crawling around under everyone's seat. She then promptly sat back and started wailing, clear and loud, and the Chief sighed.

"Can someone get her and bring her up here?"

No one moved.

"Sometime today?"

Again, no one reacted at all. Everyone was afraid of hurting the child. Because if anyone did, they all knew that the unlucky culprit would be reduced to a dusty pile of rubble in seconds. The Chief growled.

"For Spirits sake, it's a baby, not a saber toothed moose-lion!"

With that, the Chief shot a cable towards the child, snaked it around her midsection, and gently pulled her across the floor, still wailing, up to the front of the room. Everyone watched, wide-eyed, as the Chief pulled the baby up by the cable. Only she would use her cables to handle a baby. Officer Hino shook his head. He knew that her friend, the waterbending master, Katara, would choke if she saw the Chief gently dragging the child along with the cables. But Chief Bei Fong was unperturbed and so was Lin. Lin was clearly used to it. The chief settled the child on an armored hip and the baby pressed her cheek against the cool, hard metal, clearly accustomed to the armor and taking comfort in the familiar feeling. The Chief wrapped a length of cable around herself a few times, gently binding the baby to her in something a little like the sling Hino's own mother had carried him in. Except that this one was made of unyielding metal cable, and that child was perfectly comfortable and at home with it. The Chief stretched her arms, happy that her hands were free, and kept going as if nothing were different. The baby sniffled and whimpered a bit, but eventually quieted, a tiny hand clenched around the top of her mother's metal collar. The chief kept a protective hand resting softly on her small back.

Officer Hino didn't see much of Lin after that. Once he found her scooting about the hallway near the break room, the Chief nowhere in sight. He questioned her parenting skills for a moment before realizing that she could probably still sense the child's every move with her bending. He shrugged and walked on, leaving the baby to her own devices.

Officer Hino's shift was almost over and he was walking down the hallway near the offices in headquarters. He heard the baby crying as she had done this morning. He grimaced. He had a lot of little brothers and sisters and knew what it was like when his mother had to take care of a sick infant. They were more than a handful. More than that, it was clear from her cries that the little girl didn't feel well. It wasn't her crying that made Officer Hino stop short. It was the kind murmur after it.

"No more tears, my little badgermole. It's alright. Mama's got you, it's alright," he heard a low, soothing voice. He couldn't even place it immediately it was so unlike anything he had ever heard her say. But he realized with a start that of course it was the Chief. She was usually barking orders or cackling her way through a joke. It was the gentlest, kindest thing he thought he'd ever heard her say. The baby's whimpers quieted a little, but continued.

"Shh, it's alright Linny-bear, it's alright."

Just before he turned the corner, out of ear-shot, Officer Hino stopped short when he heard the Chief start singing. He had never heard her do that. He speculated that very few had, other than her daughter. But Officer Hino couldn't help but grin when he heard her start her song. She had a beautiful voice, which he was sure she made a point to keep from as many people as possible considering her usual cocky exterior. It was higher than he would've guessed; he would've expected a low voice with something of a rasp. But hers was a sweet mid-tone that spoke of classical training, of extravagant parlors and refinement, but that also had something simple and unadulterated separate from all of that. It had rich lows and spinning highs. She sang the little girl a lullaby he had never heard, that he knew couldn't be earth kingdom. He wasn't sure where it was from or where the Chief had learned it, but it had a sweet, melancholy beauty to it. He listened to Lin's whimpers cease as the Chief began her song.

_Leaves from the vine_

_Falling so slow_

_Like fragile tiny shells_

_Drifting in the foam_

_Little soldier girl_

_Come marching home_

_Brave soldier girl_

_Comes marching home_

_**Hope you all enjoyed! As always, it probably won't be very long before I update again since these are all just sitting in a folder on my desktop. As always, I'd love it if you'd leave a review and tell me what you thought! Thanks for reading! Until next time!**_

_**~Belmione**_


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